2005: Hurricane Katrina makes landfall as a Category 3 hurricane in southeast Louisiana. Katrina would go on to devastate much of the U.S. Gulf Coast from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle, killing more than 1,836 and causing more than $80 billion in damage. The most significant number of deaths occurred in New Orleans, which flooded after the city's levee system catastrophically failed, in many cases hours after the storm had moved inland.

1991: The Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, the country's highest legislative body, suspends all activities of the Soviet Communist Party, dissolving the political party.

1990: Elton John checks into a rehab center in Chicago for treatment of bulimia and addiction to drugs and alcohol.

1987: Actor and World War II Marine Corps veteran Lee Marvin dies from a heart attack at age 63 in Tucson, Arizona. Marvin was best known for movies such as "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance," "Donovan's Reef," "The Killers," "Cat Ballou," "The Professionals" and "The Dirty Dozen." He won an Academy Award for Best Actor in 1966 for his dual roles in "Cat Ballou."

1986: Actress and singer Lea Michele ("Glee," "New Year's Eve") is born in The Bronx, New York.

1982: Ingrid Bergman dies on her 67th birthday in London, England, following a long battle with breast cancer. The actress, whose best-known movies include "For Whom the Bell Tolls," "The Bells of St. Mary's," Casablanca" and "Notorious," received seven Academy Award nominations in her lifetime, winning Best Actress for "Gaslight" and "Anastasia" and Best Supporting Actress for "Murder on the Orient Express."

1977: Three people are arrested in Memphis after trying to steal Elvis Presley's body from the Forest Hill Cemetery. As a result, the remains of both Presley and his mother would be reburied in Graceland's Meditation Garden (pictured) on Oct. 2, 1977.

1977: At Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis, Lou Brock of the St. Louis Cardinals brings his career total of stolen bases to 893, beating a record held by Ty Cobb for 49 years.

1971: Nathan Leopold Jr. (top), who paired with fellow University of Chicago student Richard Loeb in 1924 to murder 14-year-old Bobby Franks in an infamous "thrill killing," dies of a diabetes-related heart attack at age 66 in Puerto Rico. Leopold and Loeb, who said they had wanted to commit a "perfect crime," hired Clarence Darrow as their defense attorney and were eventually sentenced to life in prison. Loeb was killed by a fellow prisoner in 1936 and Leopold was paroled in 1958. The case has inspired several works in film, theater and fiction, including Alfred Hitchcock's 1948 film "Rope."

1971: Actress Carla Gugino, known for her work in the movies "Spy Kids," "Sin City," "Sucker Punch" and "Mr. Popper's Penguins," is born in Sarasota, Florida. She is also known for her TV work on "Entourage," "Karen Sisco" and "Threshold."

1968: The first U.S. Open tennis match takes place with Billie Jean King defeating Long Island dentist Dr. Vija Vuskains 6-1, 6-0.

1967: The final TV episode of "Fugitive" airs as the second part of a two-part finale. The finale was the most-watched television series episode at that time, with more than 78 million people tuning in to see if Dr. Richard Kimble would finally catch up with the "one-armed man" who killed his wife.

1966: The Beatles perform their last concert before paying fans at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. After their 14-date tour wrapped up, they became a studio band and focused exclusively on record production.

1965: The Gemini V spacecraft returns to Earth, landing in the Atlantic Ocean. The mission doubled the U.S space-flight record of the Gemini 4 mission to eight days. This was crucial because the length of time it took to fly to the moon, land and return would take eight days. Here astronaut L. Gordon Cooper Jr. is being hoisted up to a Navy helicopter during recovery operations in the Atlantic Ocean.

1964: Roy Orbison's single "Pretty Woman" is released. The track quickly rose to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart, claiming the No. 1 position by Sept. 26, 1964. The single has sold more than seven million copies since its release.

1962: President John F. Kennedy fields a press-conference question on the dangerous long-range side effects of DDT and other pesticides. Kennedy acknowledged Rachel Carson's ground-breaking environmental book "Silent Spring" in his response and stated that the government was taking a closer look at the issue. Eventually, DDT would be banned in the United States.

1959: Actress Rebecca De Mornay, best known for movies like "Risky Business" (pictured), "Backdraft" and "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle," is born Rebecca Jane Pearch in Santa Rosa, California.

1958: Pop singer Michael Jackson is born in Gary, Indiana. The seventh child of the Jackson family, he debuted on the professional music scene along with his brothers as a member of The Jackson 5 in 1964, and began his solo career in 1971. With a career that lasted more than four decades featuring contributions to music, dance and fashion, he is recognized by Guinness World Records as the most successful entertainer of all time. He died at age 50 of acute propofol and benzodiazepine intoxication on June 25, 2009, after suffering from cardiac arrest.

1958: The United States Air Force Academy moves to its present site near Colorado Springs, Colorado. The academy had previously opened on July 11, 1955, at a temporary site at Lowry Air Force Base in Denver.

1949: The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb, known as First Lightning or Joe 1, at Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan. With the success of this test, the Soviet Union became the second nation after the United States to have successfully developed and conducted nuclear tests.

1947: Doctor and activist Temple Grandin is born in Boston, Massachusetts. Grandin, an autistic woman who revolutionized practices for the humane handling of livestock on cattle ranches and slaughterhouses, also created the "hug box," a device to calm autistic children.

1945: The movie musical "State Fair" opens in theaters. The movie, with original music from Rodgers and Hammerstein, introduced such popular songs as "It's A Grand Night For Singing" and "It Might as Well Be Spring," which won the Academy Award for Best Song.

1944: American troops march down the Champs Elysees in Paris as the French capital continues to celebrate its liberation from the Nazis during World War II.

1944: The Slovak National Uprising begins as 60,000 Slovak troops turn against the Nazis and the collaborationist Slovak State of Jozef Tiso during World War II.

1941: Television host and entertainment celebrity reporter Robin Leach, most famous for the TV show "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous," is born in Harrow, Middlesex, England.

1939: Film director Joel Schumacher, best known for the movies "St. Elmo's Fire," "The Lost Boys," "Falling Down," "The Client," "A Time to Kill," "Batman Forever" and "Batman & Robin," is born in New York City.

1938: Actor Elliott Gould, best known for his roles in the movies "M*A*S*H," "The Long Goodbye," "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice," and "Ocean's Eleven," is born in Brooklyn, New York.

1936: U.S. Sen. John McCain, a Republican from Arizona and the Republican Party's presidential candidate in 2008, is born on the Coco Solo Naval Air Station in the Panama Canal Zone.

1935: Film director William Friedkin, best known for the movies "The French Connection" and "The Exorcist," is born in Chicago, Illinois. He earned Best Director Oscar nominations for both movies, winning for "The French Connection" in 1972. He's also directed such movies as "Sorcerer," "Cruising," "To Live and Die in L.A.," "Blue Chips," "Jade" and "The Hunted."

1924: Grammy-winning singer Dinah Washington, who had 34 top 10 hits on the Billboard R&B charts, is born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Some of her best-known hits include "Ain't Misbehavin'," "Am I Asking Too Much," "Baby Get Lost" and "This Bitter Earth." She died of a drug overdose at the age of 39 on Dec. 14, 1963.

1923: Film director and actor Richard Attenborough is born in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England. He is best known for his acting roles in movies like "The Great Escape," "The Sand Pebbles," "Doctor Dolittle" and "Jurassic Park," and for directing the movies "A Bridge Too Far," "Magic," "A Chorus Line," "Cry Freedom," "Chaplin" and "Gandhi," the last of which won him two Academy Awards.

1922: The first radio advertisement is broadcast on WEAF-AM in New York City. The ad, actually a roughly 10-minute long talk anticipating today's radio and television infomercials, promoted an apartment development.

1922: Fashion critic Richard Blackwell, better known just as Mr. Blackwell, is born under the birth name Richard Sylvan Selzer in Brooklyn Heights, New York. He died of complications from an intestinal infection at the age of 86 on Oct. 19, 2008.

1920: Jazz saxophonist and composer Charlie Parker, also known by his nicknames of "Yardbird" and "Bird," is born in Kansas City, Kansas. Parker was a highly influential jazz soloist and a leading figure in the development of bebop. Some of his best known songs include "Billie's Bounce," "Ornithology" and "Yardbird Suite." He died at age 34 on March 12, 1955, officially of pneumonia and a bleeding ulcer, but he also had an advanced case of cirrhosis and had suffered a heart attack.

1917: Actress Isabel Sanford, best known for her role as Louise "Weezy" Jefferson on the sitcoms "All in the Family" and "The Jeffersons," is born in New York City. In 1981, she became the first black actress to win a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. The award was one of seven Emmy nominations she received for her role on "The Jeffersons," which also netted her five Golden Globe nominations. She died at age 86 on July 9, 2004.

1915: U.S. Navy salvage divers raise the USS F-4, the first commissioned submarine of the U.S. Navy to be lost at sea. The sub was lost in an accident while on a training mission near Honolulu on March 25, 1915.

1915: Actress Ingrid Bergman, best known for movies like "For Whom the Bell Tolls," "Gaslight," "The Bells of St. Mary's," Casablanca" and "Notorious," is born in Stockholm, Sweden. She was nominated for Academy Awards seven times, winning for "Gaslight," "Anastasia" and "Murder on the Orient Express."

1911: Ishi, widely acclaimed in his time as the "last wild Indian" in America to make contact with European Americans, emerges from the wilderness of northeastern California after the deaths of his mother and last relatives. The last member of the Yahi, Ishi had spent most of his life in hiding with his tribe members in the Sierra wilderness. After reading about him, professors from the University of California, Berkeley, brought him to San Francisco both for study and for his protection. He lived there until his death in 1916.

1907: The Quebec Bridge crossing the lower Saint Lawrence River to the west of Quebec City collapses during construction, killing 75 workers and making it the world's worst bridge construction disaster.

1898: The Goodyear tire company is founded by Frank Seiberling in Akron, Ohio. The first factory had 13 employees manufacturing bicycle and carriage tires, rubber horseshoe pads and poker chips. The company would quickly grow with the advent of the automobile.

1898: Screenwriter and director Preston Sturges, best known for movies such as "The Great McGinty," "Sullivan's Travels" and "The Lady Eve," is born in Chicago, Illinois. He died of a heart attack at age 60 on Aug. 6, 1959.

1893: U.S. patent No. 504,038 is issued to Whitcomb L. Judson for a "Zipper Clasp Locker or Unlocker for Shoes." Although he wasn't the first to patent a zipper-like device, he was the first to market it and is therefore often credited with inventing the zipper.

1877: Western settler Brigham Young, who founded Salt Lake City, Utah, as the leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, dies of peritonitis from a ruptured appendix at the age of 76 in Salt Lake City.

1876: Inventor Charles F. Kettering is born in Loudonville, Ohio. Among his most widely used automotive inventions are the electrical starting motor and leaded gasoline. In association with the DuPont Chemical Company, he was also responsible for the invention of Freon refrigerant for refrigeration and air conditioning systems.

1869: The Mount Washington Cog Railway opens in New Hampshire, making it the world's first mountain-climbing rack-and-pinion railway.

1831: Using his "induction ring," an iron ring wrapped two insulated coils of wire, English scientist Michael Faraday discovers electromagnetic induction: the "induction" or generation of electricity in a wire by means of the electromagnetic effect of a current in another wire. The induction ring was the first electric transformer.

1786: Shays' Rebellion, an armed uprising of Massachusetts farmers, begins in response to high debt and tax burdens. The uprising, named for Daniel Shays, a veteran of the American Revolutionary War and one of the rebel leaders, was ultimately unsuccessful, although scattered resistance continued until June 1787.

1632: Philosopher John Locke, regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers, is born in Wrington, Somerset, England.

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